City Union Bank net rises 15% to Rs 175 crore in Q4

Kumbakonam-based private sector lender City Union Bank (CUB) has reported a 15% rise in its net profit at Rs 175.12 crore for the fourth quarter against Rs 152.12 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal.

Kumbakonam-based private sector lender City Union Bank (CUB) has reported a 15% rise in its net profit at Rs 175.12 crore for the fourth quarter against Rs 152.12 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal.

The total income of the bank was at `1,131.44 crore against `990.48 crore, registering a growth of 14.2%. The board of directors has recommended for FY19 a dividend of 50% for face value of `1 per equity share.

Speaking to media persons here on Friday, N Kamakodi, MD& CEO, CUB, said that the bank could achieve a decent bottomline because it had consciously stayed away from large corporate, consortium-led and infra-sector lending, which had given problems to other banks. “ Because we stayed away to a large extent from such sectors and categories, we could focus on our core customers such as traders, SMEs and farmers,” he said.

Stating that the bank has only negligible NPAs, he said the gross NPA was at 2.95% as on March 31, 2019 compared to 3.03% year-ago period. Likewise, net NPA stood at 1.81% against 1.7%. “The fresh slippage into NPA in Q4 was to the tune of `204 crore and we recovered `98 crore,” he said.

The net interest income of the bank in Q4 increased 14% to `421 crore from `368 crore, while net interest margin stood at 4.4%.

For the whole year of FY19, the bank reported a net profit of `682.85 crore, up from `592 crore in the previous fiscal. He said the fiscal saw the bank’s total business increase by over `10,000 crore. The bank will open about 50 new branches and 75-100 ATMs this fiscal, he added.